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Walters Ms. W.654, Anthology of Persian poetry

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Shelf mark

W.654


Manuscript

Anthology of Persian poetry


Text title
Muntakhabāt-i ashʿār

Vernacular: منتخبات اشعار


Abstract

This is an anthology in fragmentary form of Persian poetry with such names as Banāʾī, Qudsī, Nīkī, Ḥayratī, Humayūn, Faṣīḥī, Qāyimī, and Kamāl mentioned in the text. It was written in nastaʿlīq script on tinted and marbled paper probably in the twelfth century AH / eighteenth CE. The three illustrations are in an archaizing early Safavid style and may have been painted in Iran or India. The binding is not original to the manuscript.


Date

12th century AH / 18th CE


Origin

Iran


Form

Book


Genre

Literary -- Poetry


Language:

The primary language in this manuscript is Persian.


Support material

Paper

Certain leaves tinted for the body of the text; tinted and marbled margins


Extent

Foliation: iii+14+iii


Collation

Catchwords: Written obliquely on versos


Dimensions

14.5 cm wide by 22.5 cm high


Written surface

7.0 cm wide by 13.0 cm high


Layout
  1. Columns: 2
  2. Ruled lines: 12
  3. Verses within a frame, in compartments, written horizontally and obliquely; framing lines in blue, black, green, and brown

Contents:
fols. 1b - 14b:
  1. Title: Muntakhabāt-i ashʿār
  2. Text note: Incomplete at beginning and end; fols. 2 and 3 should be before fol. 1; fol. 4 continues on fol. 1a; missing text between fols. 2b-5a, 6b-7a, 7b-8a, 10b-11a, and 12b-13a.
  3. Hand note: Written in nastaʿlīq script in black
  4. Decoration note: Three illustrations; framing lines in blue, black, green, and brown

Decoration:

fol. 2b:

  1. W.654, fol. 2b
  2. Title: A falcon hunting scene
  3. Form: Illustration

fol. 4b:

  1. W.654, fol. 4b
  2. Title: Reading poetry in a landscape
  3. Form: Illustration

fol. 7b:

  1. W.654, fol. 7b
  2. Title: A man kissing his beloved’s foot
  3. Form: Illustration

Binding

The binding is not original.

Red leather in dentelle style; supplied later from another codex (boards are larger than the textblock)


Acquisition

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters bequest


Contributors

Principal cataloger: Gacek, Adam

Catalogers: Landau, Amy; Smith, Sita

Editor: Bockrath, Diane

Conservators: Jewell, Stephanie; Quandt, Abigail

Contributors: Barrera, Christina; Emery, Doug; Herbert, Lynley; Noel, William; Simpson, Shreve; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.; Valle, Chiara


Publisher

The Walters Art Museum


License

Licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Access Rights, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode. It is requested that copies of any published articles based on the information in this data set be sent to the curator of manuscripts, The Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21201.